MINDDESKTOP - Computer Accessibility for Severely Handicapped

Recent advances in electroencephalography (EEG) and electromyography (EMG) enable communication for people with severe disabilities. In this paper we present a system that enables the use of regular computers using an off-the-shelf EEG/EMG headset, providing a pointing device and virtual keyboard that can be used to operate any Windows based system, minimizing the user effort required for interacting with a personal computer. Effectiveness of the proposed system is evaluated by a usability study of nonhandicapped users, indicating high user satisfaction and decreasing learning curve for completing various tasks. A short demonstration movie of the proposed system can be seen in the link provided.